


Familiar

by NotRoyalty



Series: Used To [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Bucky isn't nearly as miserable as usual, Fluff, M/M, Nat plays cupid, background Nat/Clint, big time fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-24
Updated: 2014-11-24
Packaged: 2018-02-26 20:01:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2664557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotRoyalty/pseuds/NotRoyalty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Part two of Used To that I wrote earlier. Someone requested that I continue the story, so I did. </p><p>Steve tries to lead Bucky on a quest of self-discovery, but they don't actually end up spending the day wallowing in the past.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Familiar

"So you've been to the Smithsonian?" Steve asked, watching Bucky eat cereal intently. 

"Yeah," he nodded.

It had been about week since Bucky turned up in his bedroom, and Steve was pretty sure he hadn't taken his eyes of Bucky since. SHIELD had tried to stick him in a cell, of course, but it turns out that Captain American still has some weight to throw around even if he was on the Most-Wanted list. All the same, Steve knew that they'd set someone new to watch his apartment. Bucky knew, too, and Steve knew that Bucky knew. 

Every morning when he woke up, Bucky would go straight to the front door and poke his head out to peek at the door next to Steve's apartment. Steve let him do it. Steve let Bucky do most things. The very first morning, when Steve had awoken to the slight sound of a soldier creeping across his bedroom, Bucky had been looking at him with a wary expression, but it was much less confused than the first time Steve had seen it. 

"Bucky," he said, sitting up quickly.

He paused, metal hand on the door handle.

"That's my name," he said slowly as if he were trying to remind himself.

"Yeah," Steve said, moving towards him slowly. 

"You're Steve," Bucky said, dropping his hand from the door handle.

"That's right," Steve said, and couldn't help the little smile whispering across his face.

Bucky just nodded and slipped into the bathroom as if he'd been living there his entire life. That's when Steve suspected that the Winter Soldier had been in his apartment before. When Bucky came out with his hair dripping and sat at the kitchen counter, Steve found he didn't mind. 

In the follow week, they had barely had time to think. SHIELD had swept in with a gust of Protocol, and Security Breaches. Every night when Steve brought Bucky back to his apartment, he had crashed onto the bed with a hollow look in his eyes and been asleep before Steve could so much as wish him goodnight. 

But today? Today SHIELD was nowhere (except in the apartment next door), and Steve had decided that this was the day that he would tell Bucky all about their life together. 

"That was one of the first places I went," he added, and Steve nearly beamed. Bucky had been hesitant about sharing, but Steve overshared until Bucky almost had to speak to get him to shut up.

"That's not really a good representation of us," Steve said, pushing a bunch of bananas towards him. It was part of Steve's mission to get Bucky eating healthily again instead of picking at everything. "It has the basics, but it's just not..."

"Detailed?" Bucky finished, his eyes darting up.

"Yeah," Steve nodded, staring back at him. One thing that had changed about Bucky was the way he looked at Steve. Before, his gaze had been full of fondness and laughter, but now he was intense, like he could see straight through him.

"So I've decided," Steve continued, clearing his throat, "that we're going on the Rogers and Barnes tour."

"There's a tour for us?" Bucky asked, his voice dubious.

"Not quite," Steve said, "but our old apartment is a museum now." Bucky didn't react. "That's one of our stops." 

He nodded and mechanically got up to put on his shoes. 

* * *

 

"So I take it you can't go out for drinks tonight?" Natasha asked through the phone.

"Not today," Steve shook his head, watching Bucky's eyes dart around the people in the subway car.

Bucky had long since realized that one of them was a SHIELD agent sent to tail them. He wasn't surprised, or offended, but he figured that if he told Steve there would be no end to the over-the-shoulder glances and the worried expressions. Today, he just wanted to be a person, not a soldier.

"Catch you later, then," she said. "Pun intended."

"Natasha?" Bucky asked, his eyes darting to Steve.

"That's right," Steve replied, putting away his phone.

"I shot her once," Bucky said conversationally, and Steve slowed.

"Do you remember?" he asked carefully, "or did you see it in a file?"

Bucky frowned. "I didn't read it," he began. "But it's not really like I remember it either. The images and sounds are there, but that's all. It was just a job."

Steve couldn't help but wonder if that's how he viewed the episode where he was the job. 

"I saw at the Smithsonian," Bucky said after a long pause. "That we lived together for quite a few years before we joined the army."

"That's right," Steve replied.

Bucky didn't continue, but just looked quietly down at his hands.

"We moved in together after my mom died," Steve continued. "I was always getting sick and you said that it was so we could help each other out, but I'm pretty sure that you just wanted to make sure I didn't die in the night."

A tiny little smile barely made itself known on the edge of Bucky's mouth as he looked at his hands.

"Those were some of the happiest days of my life," Steve said kindly, nudging his shoulder.

Bucky looked up at him with that unreadable expression, and Steve didn't want to break it, but the train was at their stop. 

* * *

 

"I remember this," Bucky said, coming to a halt at the bottom of the staircase that lead up to their apartment. 

Steve didn't reply, he was too busy staring at the small queue that had formed outside his front door.

"You would leave the trash," Bucky continued, the tiny smile appearing again, "just a little too far to the right and I'd almost trip over it at night."

"Sorry," Steve replied with a shrug, tearing his eyes off the informational display by his front door.

Bucky didn't say anything for the entire time they were in the queue, but he gave the blonde girl in front of them a little smile.

"I can't believe we have to buy tickets to get into our own house," he muttered as they reached the booth.

"Two adults," Steve said, ignoring him.

Bucky had wandered off by the time he had the tickets. Steve felt a slight welling of terror until he turned the corner into the kitchen and found Bucky standing in front of the stove with a frown on his face.

"Your burn is still there," Bucky said, pointing to the round mark beside the stove. 

Steve smiled fondly.

"I can't believe you refused to get a different kettle," Bucky shook his head. "I'm still mad at you about that."

"It worked fine," Steve mumbled.

"I don't suppose you still have the scar it gave you?" Bucky asked, catching Steve's hand from where it hung by his side and looking at his thumb.

"Nope," Steve shook his head, staring down at Bucky's hand. He couldn't recall where he had gotten a single one of them.

"Perks of being a super-soldier," Bucky sighed, dropping his hand.

They fell silent for a long time as Steve let the memories of the apartment wash over him. 

"Do you remember anything more about here?" he asked eventually.

Bucky shook his head, and the blankness of the Winter Soldier was back.

The SHIELD agent hovering outside was so concerned about the frowns on Steve and Bucky's faces when they emerged that he didn't notice that he was being tailed. 

* * *

 

"This was a bad idea," Steve said, squinting at the raging color of Coney Island. 

Bucky stared at the amusement park with a similar expression of bewilderment.

"It looks nothing like it used to," Steve continued.

"I like it," Bucky said definitively, marching forward.

Steve's mouth fell open a little before he hurried after Bucky. "Do you remember anything? Because I can't see a single thing-"

"You threw up after that one ride, what was it called?"

"The Cyclone."

"That's right," Bucky said, looking up at a completely unfamiliar roller-coaster with the closest thing that Steve had seen to a smile since Bucky appeared on his bed. "How often did we come here?" Bucky asked, looking around.

"Every now and then," Steve shrugged, watching Bucky with a slight smile. Truthfully, he had no idea what was going on in Bucky's head, but whatever it was, Bucky seemed happy.

Bucky nodded, and then looked at Steve. His eyes were full of hope, and he had a smile on his face.

"I bet I can beat you at that," he said, pointing to the sharpshooting game.

"Of course you can," Steve said, and then, catching himself, "you're the sniper."

Bucky froze, his back to Steve, and Steve felt his stomach fall out. It was to soon. How could he have made that joke?

Then Bucky laughed.

_Laughed._

Steve hadn't heard that sound in a lifetime. Literally.

"I'll get you a stuffed animal," he said, turning around so he could back towards the booth with the most glorious mischievous smile on his face. "Promise."

"Only if you win," Steve challenged, following him like a duckling imprinted on the world's most feared assassin.

Natasha sighed, watching the two of them from where she leaned against the railing fifty feet away. 

"He's so in love it's embarrassing," she announced to the uncomfortable SHIELD agent she'd been following.

* * *

 Steve was barely able to answer the phone before it stopped ringing because the stuffed animal Bucky had one him was so huge. Bucky seemed to enjoy watching him wrestle with it immensely. 

"Hello," he said, throwing it at Bucky, who caught it and smirked.

"On your left," Natasha said, melting out of the shadows in her tiny shorts and a tank top.

Bucky clammed up with a snap, the grin disappearing.

"What's wrong?" Steve asked, hanging up the phone.

"We're going to have a little talk," she said, calmly. "Don't look so scared, Barnes," she said without looking at him. "This can't be the first time you've seen a girl's legs."

Steve couldn't help the snort that came out of his mouth, and Bucky opened his mouth.

"Well you can't really blame me for being speechless," Bucky said suddenly, and it was Steve's turn for his mouth to fall open.

"Careful, Soldier," Natasha said with a little smirk as she lead them down the boardwalk. "Keep that up and people might start thinking you're on the market."

"He's off the market?" Steve said in confusion. 

Natasha sighed, looking down at her phone. "Listen, guys," she said. "I wasn't actually intending to crash your little date-"

"It's not a date!"

"-I was perfectly happy to tailing your tail, but you two are getting ridiculous."

"We have a tail?" Steve asked, turning to Bucky, who shrugged, handing him the stuffed animal.

"My point is," Natasha said, putting her hands on her hips, "you two need to hug it out or something. By the time I fetch Barton from the beach, I want there to have been at least one hug."

Bucky frowned. "The last time he hugged me, I lost consciousness."

The guild on Steve's face was historic, but Natasha had already melted into the shadows again. "Bucky you know-"

"Yeah, I know," Bucky nodded, kicking the boards with his feet.

"I promise that I won't choke you every time we hug," Steve said softly, staring down at his stuffed animal.

"I'm counting on it," Bucky said, looking up at him.

That was the last time that Steve was unable to recognize the now familiar expression on Bucky's face that he had seen countless times in the past week because that's when Bucky kissed him. Steve realized that it was just a more intense version of the look that Bucky had used to give him. 

Bucky had been looking at him like that for as long as they had known each other, but Steve had only now noticed.

* * *

 

When Natasha found them, Barton groaned.

"Please tell me we don't have to go on double dates with them," he said. "You know I hate PDA."

"I think it's best we leave them for now," Natasha nodded. They were so wrapped up with each other, she could have set off a firework under them, and they wouldn't notice.

"I have the haunting feeling," Barton said, and she could tell he was squinting behind his sunglasses. "That's going to become a familiar sight."

He was right. 

 


End file.
